


Heathen Clung to the Homily

by indecisivedumbass



Category: Supernatural
Genre: (spoiler) - Freeform, Angel Dean Winchester, Castiel and Jimmy Novak are Twins (Supernatural), Crack Treated Seriously, Hunter Castiel (Supernatural), Lawyer Sam Winchester, M/M, also knowing this fandom this has probably been done this before many many times, based off the dean smith of episode 4.17, but im gonna try writing this anyway, charlie cas and kevin are childhood best friends, claire is castiel's neice, dean's vessel's name is smith, dear chuck this is gonna be so ooc, except, im sorry, im sorry if i unknowingly copied someone else's fic, it'll take a while to get to destiel, let dean be bi and say fuck, no beta we die like hunters, reverse verse, sam lives a normal life free of hunting then turns into cole trenton, sort of bc sam is still human
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23485249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indecisivedumbass/pseuds/indecisivedumbass
Summary: What if Dean was the one to grip Castiel tight and raise him from perdition? What would happen to Sam if his childhood was free of hunting, and Dean wasn't his brother?
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	Heathen Clung to the Homily

Angels weren't real, Castiel firmly believed that. Despite his family being overly religious and going as far as to name him Castiel - "the angel of Thursday" - he didn't believe in them. He didn't grow up hunting, but he and Jimmy were fed countless Bible stories as kids. They were the type of family who went to church every Sunday without fail, where Jimmy was the golden child for being able to recite Bible verses forwards and backward with ease. It wasn't that Castiel didn't find Christianity or the Bible stories intriguing - he did - he just didn't find them intriguing in the same way as his brother or family. 

It was almost like they spoke to him like he somehow just _knew_ they were real whether he liked them or not. While Castiel didn't believe in angels now, he did once upon a time when he was younger, more naive, and new to being a hunter. 

As a kid, he'd pray every night. Well, it wasn't so much as praying, it was more of Castiel attempting to have a one-sided conversation with whoever would listen. To angels, to God, to anyone, because in all honesty he just wanted answers. He had questions about why he felt about the Bible stories so differently than his twin. Jimmy was the perfect, devout Christian. Jimmy memorized the verses and had a perfect, selfless vision of "What Would Jesus Do" in any given situation, and he believed in God and angels without necessarily... _believing_ in them. It was the same for their parents. They had unwavering faith in God, and while Castiel believed He and his angels existed, he didn't believe _in_ them. It was more so he viewed it as a fact of life that he wanted to know more about, but didn't fall into line of being a goody-two-shoes who obeyed without question. 

He never got answers to his questions or prayers, no matter how hard he prayed them. 

What he did get was attacked by a ghost when he was in high school. 

He stupidly stayed the night with a couple of friends in a supposedly haunted house during Halloween. In hindsight, it wasn't the greatest idea and Kevin was terrified the entire time, but they weren't going to chicken out. Charlie would tease them about it forever if they did, so they stayed. Then nearly got themselves killed in the process. How were they to know that the things who go bump in the night were real? They were hoping to be scared shitless in the spirit of Halloween, but it got too real when Kevin was almost decapitated. 

Everyone was a screaming, shaking mess by the time the spirit materialized. It was moaning something how cold it felt when it died. It wailed about how cruel its murderer was for its agonizingly slow death and how the three would experience the same. 

Charlie didn't think twice before grabbing the nearest object (coincidentally an ancient-looking fireplace poker made out of iron) and swinging when it came for her. It screamed in pain and momentarily disappeared, and the two boys stared in shock. "What are you two idiots doing? Run," Charlie hissed, hardly believing her stroke of luck herself. So they scrambled out of that house as fast as they could, with Charlie swinging the fireplace poker whenever it reappeared in front of them. 

It goes without saying it was traumatizing for them. With the ghost bound to the house, it couldn't chase after them. It didn't stop them from running until the house was long out of sight and they were collapsed in Kevin's backyard. They were silent for minutes after, each of them panting heavily and Charlie was clinging to the fireplace poker for dear life. 

"That's the last time you're allowed to pick what we do for Halloween," Kevin breathed out, finally breaking the tense silence and they all huffed a shaky laugh. 

When Castiel returned home the next day, he didn't tell anyone what happened. Neither did Charlie or Kevin because they knew what would happen if they did. People would either think they were trying to prank them, or they were drinking that night, or they were completely insane, so they all agreed to keep it to themselves. 

Even though it was their best-kept secret in the history of their friendship, they never stopped talking about it. They tried theorizing on it, about why Charlie's poker worked on it and nothing else did, and how someone needed to take care of the ghost before someone else was killed by it. So, they dug deep into whatever lore they could find and came up with hundreds of results. Countless religions and groups of people had things to say about ghosts, but the most common answer they came up with was iron, salt, and fire. 

It took a lot of debating between the three about what they should do. "It isn't our problem," Kevin insisted as they sat in Charlie's bedroom. Kevin was sitting in Charlie's desk chair, Castiel was laying on the floor, and Charlie was hanging upside down from her bed as she thought. "Everyone knows that place is haunted, most people steer clear of it, and we don't even know if salting and burning the bones will work. It's a shot in the dark, and we'll probably get arrested for digging up a body in a cemetery," he stressed the last part, trying to get it across to Charlie and Castiel just how insane their idea sounded. 

"We're minors," Charlie argued back. "We won't get shipped off to jail for this. I mean, we _can't_ yet, right? And it's not like we've caused trouble in the past, it would be our first offense." 

Castiel shrugged, still staring off into the ceiling as he pointed out, "But if we got caught, we'd get caught digging up someone's body from their grave and burning it. They'd think we're deranged teenagers in some satanic cult." 

"Yes! That, exactly! And are you sure you want to go up against that-... That _thing_ again? I don't know how we survived it the first time." Kevin loved his friends, he really did, but he thought they were insane. After all, he was the one almost decapitated by it, not them. 

"I wasn't agreeing with you," Castiel argued, "I was just stating the obvious. If we're careful and Charlie hacks the security, I think we'll be fine. It can't leave the house, and we already know where its grave is." 

Charlie struggled to sit up abruptly at that, her face a bit red from hanging upside down for so long, but she was grinning wildly. "Are you kidding me? Hacking that piece of shit is gonna be the easiest part about this, don't worry your pretty little heads over that. Does that mean we're doing this? We're really doing this? We're going full Ghostbusters on its ass?" 

"I think we should," Castiel agreed as Kevin leaned back in his chair with a loud groan. Despite Charlie and Castiel's 4.0s, Kevin swore they were the biggest idiots he knew. Although maybe that wasn't true, maybe he was the idiot for letting them drag him along with all of this. 

In the dead of night the three headed out to the cemetery, each armed with a shovel. Charlie still had her iron fireplace poker in her other hand, just in case. Her parents were starting to worry about how much comfort she took in having it, but they never commented on it. Castiel started to carry a silver knife on him too because when they were searching for lore on ghosts, they found out silver was effective against most supernatural creatures. They had no idea if others existed, but if ghosts existed, then Castiel wouldn't doubt it. 

The salt and burn was a success, even if it took longer than they expected to dig up a grave. They were three nerdy teenagers hacking at the ground in a pitch-black night - so it went about as well as you'd think. Eventually, they got to the body and once they fought passed the weird feeling of burning an old, dead stranger's body, they salted and burned. They covered up the hole too, and once they got back to Castiel's car, Charlie took down her temporary override on the cemetery's security. It took Kevin a good amount of convincing to go back to that house to make sure it worked, and no matter how long they sat in that eerie house, there weren't any more cold spots. No one came out to decapitate them either, so they took it as a success. 

Charlie and Castiel were coming off a high from their first supernatural kill, and Kevin had to admit it felt pretty surreal in the best of ways. It was an odd feeling: knowing they made a difference in the world, that they helped it for the better, and no one knew. They didn't tell anyone, of course, because that would be asking for trouble. There was a special kind of novelty to it anyway - like their little group was bonded in ways they couldn't describe - and they felt like superheroes. No one else knew of the good deed, but they did, and it was a fantastic feeling. They thought it would be the end of it, but it wasn't. 

Nearly a year after their first ghost kill, a lone vampire rolled into town. The strange deaths plaguing the city made it hard to shake that they were somehow supernatural, so they dug into the lore again. They eventually came to an agreement that it was a vampire. It sounded so unreal, but the details lined up perfectly, and what was so unrealistic about a world with ghosts also having vampires in it? 

This kill was so much harder than a ghost bound to one place. The three royally pissed off the vampire and Castiel got a nasty battle scar, but it was worth it. Those strange deaths in their city stopped and Castiel never felt more alive - which was quite ironic for someone almost bleeding out. 

Kevin rushed Castiel to the hospital while Charlie disposed of the vampire's body. They demanded to know why they'd been out so late to begin with and why he tried to fight back when they were "mugged", but Castiel avoided all the questioning with a blunt, "I'm tired and need time to sleep and recover." 

It was then Castiel knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wouldn't grow up to be a historian, a mathematician, or go to the college of his dreams like his parents wished for. He wanted to be a hunter. As far as he knew, no one else in America was doing it. So few people in the world knew the truth and someone needed to protect them, so why not him? It was an existence worth living since he knew his life would make an impact and save others, rather than burning his life away at an eight-hour job every day. 

His parents were disappointed in him when he didn't apply to a college his senior year. Jimmy tried to talk to him about it, about how he should set himself up for a "successful future" and how he should apply to the same college as him. Castiel quickly shut him down whenever he brought it up. No, being a hunter wasn't something conventionally successful, but it made him excited for his future. He knew he'd be making a difference in the world one monster kill at a time. 

Charlie and Kevin both went off to college, but they remained as close as ever. They made sure Castiel called them after he finished a job, and when Charlie had a break from school, she'd join him on his hunts. In moments of panic or when he couldn't crack the case, he'd call Kevin to help him research and Kevin always came through. When Castiel hit a lull with cases, Charlie and Kevin always let him crash at their apartments. It was a nice system, and while the road could get lonely or terrifying at times, the hunter loved it. 

He was good at it, too. Even though he was new to the game (since some people were actually _raised_ hunting, to his surprise), Castiel was starting to become one of the most infamous hunters. He learned fast and hadn't left a case unsolved to date. But, he'd also long given up his hope in God and angels existing. 

Castiel had seen many, many things in his years of hunting. Ghouls, vampires, wendigos, all sorts of ghosts, werewolves, demons on occasion, and he'd heard from other hunters about gods from other religions existing - the little "g" ones. Although, none of them had personal stories about God and/or angels, so it was needless to say he stopped believing in them. In his world, if something supernatural existed then you'd know. At least one or two hunters would've seen something to prove its existence, and yet no one had. So, no. He was willing to bet anything that angels didn't exist. 

* * *

Castiel was widely regarded as an excellent hunter, and while the job meant everyone was bound to die bloody at some point, a lot of people had faith in him. That's why no one saw it coming when a rumor went around that he'd died.

He, Charlie, and Kevin had a system, after all. He always kept them updated and the longest he went without any contact was a couple of days. 

They were beyond worried when he hadn't contacted them in a week. 

Charlie scanned the trail of towns Castiel had been last, and it didn't take her long to find a newspaper warning about rabid animals. There was a report on an unknown man found dead in a local hotel, looking as if he was torn apart by "rabid animals". After the police investigated his death, they found out his name was Castiel Novak and Charlie's stomach plummeted as she read and reread the article. 

It was a mistake. It _had_ to be a mistake. Castiel didn't make detrimental slip-ups, but as a teary-eyed Kevin read the newspaper, he pointed out only one thing they knew killed people like that: hellhounds. 

Sure, Castiel was torn apart and a lot of monsters did that, but nothing was eaten. It had to have been hellhounds.

"But it doesn't make any sense," Kevin murmured as he scanned the article again. His eyes were red and voice a bit shaky as he tried to process that their friend was dead. Of course, logically they knew it was a possibility, but they never thought it would happen. They'd seen him in fights multiple times, and he seemed so... invincible. It was easy to forget he was only human like them, especially with some of the stories he'd lived through to tell. "Hellhounds only come after those who make demon deals, and you know he'd never do that." Something was off. The article was lying. Maybe it misidentified their friend or maybe Castiel was fighting a shapeshifter and it took his form before he killed it. 

Except, Charlie was silent. She didn't add on with any theories like she usually did, and when Kevin turned to face her, her expression made him freeze. The redhead looked at him with wide eyes drowned in guilt, and she looked absolutely terrified. "Kevin, you know that hunt I went on with Cas a year back? The really weird one with the coven of witches?" 

Kevin eyed her slowly, not liking where the conversation could be heading. "The one you two had a close call on?"

"I thought it was a close call," Charlie spoke quietly and her voice was trembling, but even still she continued talking. The horror of what might've happened forced her to. "I blacked out towards the end, I can't remember a ton. I thought-... I thought I was dead, but I woke up just fine. Cas looked so worried like he didn't believe it and he wouldn't leave me alone for a couple of days afterwards, but I-... I didn't think anything of it."

"It wasn't that," Kevin insisted, both because he wasn't sure if Charlie could take it if he said it was, and because he refused to believe Castiel was dead. It had to be a mistake. "Demons collect after ten years, not one."

"Kevin. It's been _exactly_ one year since that day, nothing else we know would've killed him like that, and demons hate him. Ever since he stole that badass knife from Meg, maybe... Maybe they change the rules for people they hate. I wouldn't put it past them, they're demons."

They didn't bother trying to convince each other otherwise. All the facts lined up too well, and it would be a waste of breath to convince themselves of a lie. The only thing Kevin tried to convince Charlie of was that it wasn't her fault, because it wasn't. Castiel was a selfless person who had a high-risk job: he would've made that demon deal regardless. He'd stop at nothing to keep his friends safe. 

They wanted to give Castiel's body a hunter's send-off. They wanted to burn it so no one would use their friend's body for the sick things he tried to prevent, but by then his family already had possession of his body. Most Christians were against cremations, so his family gave him a proper burial. Charlie and Kevin just didn't have the heart to defile his grave and burn his body. But, what they did do was slip in a few wardings against demons and other monsters. It felt disrespectful to leave his body completely unprotected.

While they knew they could never fill Castiel's shoes completely (especially since Charlie and Kevin now had high paying tech jobs with respectable companies), they still tried. Charlie still went on a few hunts here and there, and if one of Castiel's hunter "acquaintances" called his old phone, Kevin picked up and helped with the research. Castiel always said he didn't make friends, and yet there were so many people calling his phone along with being genuinely upset he died. Their system wasn't perfect and they never got over his death, but Charlie and Kevin were helping the hunting world little by little. 

After a rough four months that seemed to pass by simultaneously too fast and too slow, one Sam Winchester came to them with an odd case. Somewhere along the line, he heard about Charlie and Kevin and how they take odd cases. Well, it wasn't often they took personal cases since there weren't many who knew enough to come to them personally, but they wouldn't turn Sam down. Once they saw the desperation in his eyes, they didn't care if it was out of their norm: they'd help this man no matter what. 

* * *

Sam and Smith Winchester grew up with a completely, entirely normal childhood. There wasn't a single thing odd thing about it. Their father was Lawrence's best and well-trusted mechanic, their mother tried very hard to give them everything she could, and the two Winchesters grew up to be extremely successful. Smith worked his way through the ranks of a respectable company (coincidentally, it was the same company that Charlie provided enhanced tech support for) and was on his way to becoming a CEO. Sam followed his dreams of going to Stanford and being an excellent lawyer. He and his brother were both satisfied with their conventionally successful, white picket fence life; they were happy. 

Or at least, they were happy and content up until a few days ago. 

Sure, Sam and Smith weren't close by any means, but they kept tabs on each other. Every once in awhile, they'd give a call and update their brother on their personal lives, and that would be that. It worked for them until Smith missed one of Sam's calls. 

That might not sound odd in of itself since Smith was a busy man, but he always made an effort to apologize when he missed his calls. He usually explained why he missed them, but there was nothing of the sort this time. Sam didn't have any feedback at all at the end of the day, but he tried to tell himself it was fine. His brother would get back to him soon. It could've been a malfunction with the call, or maybe Smith really was buried in his work and it slipped his mind. The younger Winchester didn't want to be annoying, so he waited until the next morning to call again. Sam thought he'd get a half-assed apology, maybe they'd give each other an empty promise about meeting up soon, but that wasn't the case. Once again, he was left with no answer at all. 

Sam went about his day normally and pretended like it didn't bother him, even though something didn't... _Sit_ right with him about it. That was insane though, right? Nothing bad happened to them. Maybe the daily inconvenience, but all the Winchesters were decent, upstanding citizens who were so painfully normal. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to them - ever. Yet, Sam still couldn't shake this _feeling_. He decided he'd ignore it for one more day then he'd do something about it. 

So, on the third day, Sam called one more time and just like before, there was no response. None at all. 

He called again. 

And again. 

No response. 

On the fourth time that day, his call went straight to voicemail without even trying to deliver his call. 

At that point, nothing could convince Sam Winchester that he was wrong. Something was off. Something happened to his brother and he'd find out what. 

But, the logical part of his brain was still trying to rationalize the situation. _He probably broke his phone, or maybe someone stole it_. That wouldn't explain why it was picking up his calls until now.

Sam could feel his heart hammering in his throat as he approached Smith's nice, sophisticated apartment complex. Maybe it was the fear that he'd finally get an answer and he'd know whether or not his fear was justified. But the thought that was more terrifying - the thought Sam didn't know if he could handle - was if he got his answer by getting no answers at all. 

He tried to shove the negative, spiraling thoughts out of his head as he went inside the building. He didn't think about how he'd convince the owner to let him into Smith's apartment, which was an extreme lapse of judgment on his part. 

"Look, I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm his _brother_ ," Sam tried to explain for the millionth time, getting beyond frustrated at that point. "I'm just worried about him. He hasn't answered any of my calls lately and that's really unlike him. So, please, I want to make sure he's okay. That's it." 

She rolled her eyes, getting easily irritated with the younger Winchester too. "You understand why I can't go around handing out keys to everyone who asks for one, right? It's bad for business and I'm not going to explain this to you again. So I'd suggest you leave through your own will and choice right now or-"

Before Sam could get too desperate, a familiar voice asked with just as much confusion as he had, "Sam?"

Both the woman and Sam turned to face the newcomer, which happened to be a very concerned looking Lisa. "What are you doing here? You never come to see Smith, unless it's his birthday or Easter or something." 

The owner eyed the two for a moment before rolling her eyes once more, giving up and deciding it wasn't worth it. She honestly didn't care; she'd only persisted so much against Sam because Sam kept persisting and it irritated her. 

"I know, but he never answered my calls, and-..." Sam paused for a moment as a thought hit him. "What are _you_ doing here? I don't want to be rude or anything, but I thought you and Smith went on a break a few months ago." 

Lisa gave winced but played it off with a smile, nodding. "Yeah, we did, but it's-... complicated. Here, I'll explain everything upstairs, just..." _Not here_ was left unspoken. Sam understood, especially if it was something personal about their situation or if she came back because something really did happen to Smith. He followed her up to Smith's part of the building, the walk up there a bit tense to say the least. 

As they finally reached Smith's door and entered, Sam opened his mouth to ask one of the many questions forming on his tongue, but then shut it slowly as he smelled something unusual. Was that...sulfur? That was odd. 

"Sam?" Lisa asked, but the concern on her usually kind features seeming almost artificial? Or was Sam being paranoid and his mind was playing tricks on him? "What's wrong? You're acting weird." 

Sam gave a small, dismissive smile as he said, "I'm fine, just tired. This whole thing has me worried, that's all. Smith has never pulled something like this before, and-... I don't know. You two were on a break, though, so how'd you know about all of this?" He kept the suspicion out of his tone for obvious reasons. He was being paranoid; it was completely irrational to think Lisa knew anything she shouldn't about this situation. He just wished his stupid instincts would _shut up_ already. 

"Oh, right. We were on a break, but he still checked in on Ben once in a while and he stopped, so I came to see if he was okay." That was a plausible explanation, but there was still this nagging, persistent feeling that there was something off about this. About Smith's disappearance, about Lisa, about all of it. 

"Speaking of the kid, where is he?" Sam only met him a couple of times, but he knew enough to know how great of a parent Lisa was. It was definitely suspicious that he wasn't there. 

"Who, Ben?" Lisa asked, blinking at the question before replying quickly, "He's still at school, Sam." Now, that. That was very unsettling. It was a minor holiday so most people had the day off. Not people like Sam, of course, but people who worked in offices and kids who went to school. Ben couldn't have been at school that day. 

Still, even while thoroughly unnerved, Sam kept his smile as he nodded. "Right, sure, of course." He hesitated, glancing over his surroundings for a moment before he pointed his thumb awkwardly down the hallway, "I, uh. Have to use the bathroom. I've had to for a while, and that woman at the front desk wouldn't even let me do that..." He trailed off lamely as Lisa gave an empty chuckle. 

"Yeah, of course, Sam. It's the second door down the hall." 

Sam shot Lisa another smile that flickered too quickly to be a genuine smile then hurried down to the bathroom. He didn't have to use it, he just needed a moment to sort through his racing thoughts. Once safely inside the bathroom, Sam locked the door behind him and scrubbed a hand over his face with a sigh, just trying to rationalize the situation. Sure, the whole thing was eerie and odd - beyond odd, really - but that couldn't mean anything...right? Sam was already concerned about his brother's safety. His thoughts were already going haywire as he tried to come up with an accurate theory, and Lisa lying about her son's whereabouts didn't necessarily _prove_ anything, right? 

He wrinkled his nose as the smell of sulfur hit him again, this time it being potent enough to break up his thoughts. Seriously, what was wrong with Smith's house? He should get that looked at - once he got back anyway. It wasn't until he took a closer look around the bathroom and saw a powdery substance on the floor, in the corner of the room. Sam's eyebrows furrowed as he knelt down, poking at it with morbid curiosity. 

"What the hell," Sam whispered to himself when he discovered it was pure, powdery sulfur. Okay, there were too many weird things going on for it to be dismissed without a second thought. He took a steadying, deep breath before standing once more. He dusted his hand off on his jeans, thinking through a plan. He'd continue to ask Lisa questions to see if she knew anything, then he'd leave and figure this out on his own. Maybe his instinct was onto something after all. 

Sam was planning on playing it cool as he walked out of the bathroom, except Lisa was already there in front of him. She was in his face with an eerie, bloodthirsty grin he could've gone his whole life without seeing. "You took a long time in there, Sam. Care to share with the class what you were doing?" 

Then, he was pinned against the wall by Lisa as Ben came out, except his gaze was just as bone-chilling as Lisa's was. He was carrying a knife, too, and Sam was frozen. What the hell could he even _do_ in this situation? It was, seemingly, a sweet woman and her child! But...with the look they were giving him, he wasn't sure he had a choice. 

"Lucifer is about to rise, and then the Boy With the Demon Blood's righteous brother disappears? It isn't a coincidence if you ask me," Lisa mused, using a blade of her own to drag the tip of her blade almost lovingly across Sam's jawline. "Oh, but don't worry, Sam, we won't hurt you. Not too badly anyway. He wouldn't like it if we hurt one of his favorite little pets." 

Sam grit his teeth, breaking into a cold sweat as he tried to shy away from the knife's touch. "You're insane," he hissed, eyes frantically searching the deranged woman and child in front of him. Why were they talking about Satan, and him having demon blood? This...it couldn't be Lisa and Ben still, right? But that was impossible. Smith might've believed in religion, and Sam supposed he'd always hoped it was real, but this - acting as if it was a seeable reality they could interact with - was insane. "What are you even talking about?"

"You really don't know, do you?" Lisa - no _not_ Lisa - nearly purred, pressing the knife's point just enough to nick the skin. Sam shuddered at the way she seemed so pleased with the startled, terrified gasp he gave. "Oh, you poor, sheltered boy. Why he would pick you to be his favorite when you're so new - just a wide-eyed innocent lamb waiting for the slaughter - is beyond me. Anthony, handle it from here. I need to find someone to make a phone call to our boss." 

As the boy was moving forward, Sam did something he didn't know he could. He was acting off of sheer instinct by that point and he had no idea what was going on, but soon both Not-Lisa and Not-Ben fell to their knees, their expressions twisted in agony. Sam's head had a splitting pain and distantly he noticed his nose was bleeding, but that didn't stop him from tearing out of that apartment as fast as he could. He didn't look back, he didn't even question what had happened until he was safely in his car, speeding away and trying to figure out what to do next. 

If the Winchesters ever had a chance of living a normal life, that was the moment when it was obliterated beyond return. 

* * *

He landed himself in Charlie's apartment as they both combed him over with questions. 

"What do you mean they called you the "Boy With the Demon Blood?" And they called your brother righteous, they already knew about his disappearance?" Kevin questioned, all while Charlie was asking at the same time, 

"You immobilized them with your _mind_? How'd that go? What did it feel like? Have you always known you're a psychic?" 

"Guys, one thing at a time," Sam said with a sigh. "And yes, I think I did, but I'm not a psychic." Although he hesitated for a moment before adding, "I mean... I do get weird dreams sometimes, I guess, but everyone gets weird dreams sometimes." Except, most people's didn't come true but Sam wasn't about to admit that to strangers. Even if he came to them for help, he didn't want to reveal all of his cards. They seemed like nice people, truly, but they were a little off the rocker. They had weird, concerning satanic symbols everywhere and didn't flinch at anything Sam had to say. They acted as if it was _normal_ , which that in of itself was enough to prove they were insane. 

Charlie's eyebrows raised at that and thankfully she didn't comment on it, but Sam knew he probably shouldn't have admitted the dreams bit. "Alright, so... You know just as much as we do at this point - at least when it comes to what those demons were talking about." 

Sam just about choked at that. "Demons?" He questioned incredulously. 

"Hey, you saw how they were acting, how they were talking. That's enough reason as any to believe it, right?" Charlie pointed out. 

"But they're not-... I've known Lisa and Ben for a few years. They're not _demons_ ," Sam insisted. 

Kevin gave Sam a sympathetic look as he said gently, "They're not. Not... normally, but they were possessed. Demons can possess people." 

"And that might be what happened to your brother," Charlie warned, trying to be as delicate as possible about it. Unfortunately, there wasn't any great way to go about telling someone their family member might be possessed by a demon. 

From what Sam heard, he knew the situation would be... Out there, but he didn't think it would be this bad. It was crazy, and Sam thought he might've made a mistake coming there and telling them about what happened. It couldn't be the truth. Smith was a... well, a righteous man like Not-Lisa and Not-Ben said. Demons couldn't possess religious people, that made sense. 

He planned on making up an excuse to escape Charlie and Kevin's questioning. He could figure all of this out on his own anyway, he just had to think about things logically. Thankfully, not a lot of effort had to be put into finding a way out the back door, so to speak. Charlie and Kevin were already planning and theorizing between each other, with their focus only shifting to Sam for an occasional question, but then their focus was completely destroyed when there was another knock at their door. The two friends glanced at the door, then at Sam, then back at each other as they shared a look of, _I wasn't expecting another person today, were you?_

Then, the doorknob rattled as it was slowly unlocked and a thoroughly disheveled, dirty looking Castiel waltzed in. Charlie and Kevin stopped altogether, their eyes wide in shock. It couldn't be him - there was no _way_ it could be him. Castiel had been dead for months, it wasn't physically possible for his body to even be intact like that. Sam had no idea what was going on, but he couldn't care less because he knew this was his way out. Charlie and Kevin were too distracted by whatever was happening to notice him slipping out. 

After his initial shock, Kevin reacted fast and scrambled to get a vial of water. He uncapped it and threw it at Castiel while Charlie drew a silver blade and all Sam could think was, _thank God I'm leaving._

"I'm not a demon," the dirty looking Castiel grumbled in irritation and then strode over to yank Charlie's knife out of her hand. He sliced a minimal cut to the back of his wrist. It cut cleanly without harming him more than it would a human - and slowly Charlie started to accept that he _was_ human. Somehow. 

"How?" She muttered, and Kevin still eyed their previously dead friend warily. He wanted to believe Castiel was back, he really did, but nothing made sense. 

Castiel sighed tiredly, dropping the knife onto a nearby table. "I don't know," he admitted. "That's what I've been trying to figure out." 

The two swarmed their friend, full of concern and questions, and Sam took that as an opportunity to let himself out. He really wanted no part in them because all this talk of demons, demon blood, psychic powers, it was too much. It wasn't real and it couldn't be real. But, maybe if Sam stuck around long enough, he would've heard Castiel's story about forcing a being named "Dean" to appear. A being who wore a formal suit with a loose tie. Someone who had an eerie amount of physical similarities to Smith and how Dean's appearance lined up with Smith's disappearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so! as you might've guessed, this was mostly setting the ground for this fic. charlie's parents didn't die when she was 12 in this. kevin hasn't awoken as a profit of the lord yet, and castiel has a relatively decent childhood but decides the world needs him as a hunter. his family has no idea what he does, charlie accompanies him on hunts sometimes, and kevin is mostly their research guy. idk, i just thought it would be nice, i'm kinda making stuff up as i go. please don't yeet me bc i just recently got into supernatural.  
> also, poor sam. i had this vision of a stressed out, worried sam searching endlessly for his brother and still having no clue as to what's going on. things kinda pick up around s5 so everyone's around 26/27, except for dean obviously


End file.
